


radiant warmth

by tessav



Series: Light in the Dark [1]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Nico's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 12:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13317954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessav/pseuds/tessav
Summary: Even when she's not lighting up like a rainbow, Karolina seems to radiate light wherever she goes. Nico notices.or,How Nico falls for Karolina





	radiant warmth

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from miki ratsula's song with the same name (check it out its gay)
> 
> honestly i just really want to know what's been going through nico's head this whole time and this is the only way i can try to find out. i hope you enjoy!

Karolina glows. No, more than just when she takes off her bracelet and lights up like a rainbow nightlight—though Nico admits that it’s really cool—but even in the little moments in between.

Nico first notices it when they’re in Karolina’s car, chasing down Alex’s kidnappers. Gert and Molly are in the back seat, and Gert is shouting at Karolina to drive more carefully, and Nico should be worried about crashing, or about what’s going to happen to Alex, but then she looks over at Karolina, who’s grinning recklessly as she swerves from lane to lane, and Nico’s struck by the light that seems to radiate out from Karolina. Only minutes ago, they had been hugging in Timely Coffee’s parking lot, trying to comfort each other because of everything that’s been going on. But Karolina’s tears have dried and she’s looking at Nico, eyes warm, and Nico feels her heartrate speed up.

“Help is on the way,” Gert says. Karolina swerves and quickly turns a corner and Nico sees Gert practically fall out of her seat. “That is, if you don’t kill us first!

“Karolina, you’re doing great” Nico says.

“Thank you,” Karolina says breathlessly.

Nico likes this new Karolina. Brave, rebellious Karolina, who isn’t afraid of taking some risks. It’s inspiring, and if she’s honest with herself, it’s also kind of hot.

Then they pull up behind the car Alex is in, and Nico tries to use her staff to stop the car, but something’s wrong, and the staff isn’t obeying her commands. She starts to freak out—what if she loses Alex, just like she lost Amy? Her breathing picks up, and she becomes more desperate, but the light is about to turn green and nothing’s working. But Molly runs out and, to everyone’s surprise, manages to lift up the back of the SUV. And then, even more surprising, Karolina takes off her bracelet and shoots at the bad guys with bright, multicolored beams of light. Nico looks over at Karolina and the girl is beaming, and Nico can’t remember the last time she saw Karolina smile like that. Chase appears and punches with some weird metal gloves, and Gert says in confusion, “What is happening right now?”  
“I think we’re kicking ass,” Nico laughs. Then the bad guy tries to shoot at them, but Nico’s staff finally decides to work again, and she’s able to create a shield that stops the bullets. She feels like laughing, despite the situation they’re in. Molly’s strength, Karolina’s light, Chase’s fists, and her staff? It’s all so cool and incredible and she can’t really comprehend it. So she laughs and gets back into Karolina’s car after the gang agrees to meet back up for coffee and she does her best to wrap her head around what’s just happened.

 

They’re back at Timely Coffee, all of them except Alex, and they’re gushing over what’s just happened. Nico’s sitting next to Karolina and she leans forward to push a loose strand of hair out of Karolina’s face. “I still can’t get over those lights!” she says.

“And your staff,” says Karolina, reaching out and grabbing Nico’s hand. Even though they’re not the only ones at the table, Nico feels like she and Karolina are in their own world. Karolina’s beaming and she seems so golden in the dim lighting of the coffee shop. She’s glowing, even without her rainbow lights.

Then Alex appears and Nico’s pulled back into reality. The gang starts arguing about whether or not to help the kid that helped kidnap Alex. Then Molly reveals that Gert has a dinosaur that follows her orders. And even with everything Nico’s seen in the past few days, she knows that that’s really fucking cool.

“You never said anything about Gert having a dinosaur!” Karolina says to Chase.

“I mean, I kept quiet about your lights,” he says in response. Nico isn’t sure why, but hearing that Karolina had confided in Chase about the lights leaves a weird feeling in her stomach. She and Karolina aren’t even that close, why would Karolina have come to her with this? Despite her reasoning, it still hurts to know that she went to Chase before her.

“Okay, yeah I probably should have told you guys, but I was just worried you’d think I was a freak,” Karolina says, looking somewhat guilty as she confesses.

Nico can’t help but smile encouragingly at Karolina, and she nudges her gently with her arm. “I think we’re all scoring pretty high on the freak-o-meter tonight,” she says. Karolina smiles back at her and squeezes Nico’s arm for a moment, thanking her for not getting upset.

They decide that they have to at least try to stop Andre from being killed, and so they pile back into their cars and drive to Alex’s house. They’re too late, or they went to the wrong place, or something, because when they get to Alex’s basement there’s nobody there. “God dammit!” Alex exclaims in frustration. He storms out of the basement and Nico follows him. She knows that somebody’s going to have to calm him down, and she’s still feeling a little bit guilty about him getting kidnapped and her not being able to stop it from happening, so she when she finds him by himself in a room she sits down next to him to talk.

He’s upset, obviously. He seems to think that it was his fault that the kid died, and Nico wants nothing more than to explain that it was in defense, and that it was not his fault, and that any one of them would have done the same thing.

“I’m glad we got you back,” she says, reaching for Alex’s hand. “I was so worried about you.” It’s the truth. He’s part of the team, and she can honestly say that he’s probably her closest friend. She sees him look down at her lips, and to Nico’s surprise, she finds herself leaning forward to kiss him.

It’s a better kiss than their last one, which had been pretty tame. They’re all hurting right now and if she and Alex can find comfort in each other, then why not? Who’s it gonna hurt?

She finds an answer to that question more quickly than she thought when she hears Karolina’s timid voice. “Guys?” she says cautiously. Nico immediately pulls back and she sees the blonde standing awkwardly in the doorway, trying to look anywhere but at Alex. Nico feels a wave of guilt hit her, and as she walks out of the room with Alex, she ducks her gaze to avoid making eye contact, knowing that she would only see hurt in Karolina’s eyes. The golden light Nico has gotten used to seeing in Karolina is dimmed, and Nico doesn’t want to consider that it might be because of her.

 

She and Karolina don’t talk for a few days, and Nico’s kind of surprised when she gets a text from Karolina asking if Nico wants to get ready with her for the gala. She replies back with a _Yes!!!_ before she can really think it through, and she realizes that Karolina might want to talk to her about what she interrupted the other day. Nico isn’t ready for that. She’s not even sure why she kissed Alex. It was fun, yeah, but it wasn’t worth the look of hurt on Karolina’s face. So she texts Gert and asks if she and Molly want to join in getting ready, under the guise of ‘supporting her local girl-gang’.

The day of the gala arrives and Nico shows up at Karolina’s house with her dress, makeup, and jewelry. Karolina’s mirror is big enough for both of them to use and so they sit together putting on their makeup. Nico feels the warmth radiating off of Karolina as the taller girl leans next to Nico, concentrating as she puts on mascara. It warms Nico down to the core and Nico sends a prayer to any god that will listen thanking them for letting Karolina and Nico spent time together without either one bringing up the kiss between Nico and Alex.

They switch to putting on jewelry, and Nico is impressed with how many tiny gold rings and bracelets Karolina has. Karolina’s hands are soft as she places a black ring on Nico’s finger—a task that Nico could have easily done by herself, but she’s really not complaining.

Karolina hands her a necklace. “Can you help me put this on?” she asks. Nico nods and steps behind her, opening the small clasp and securing the necklace around Karolina’s neck. “And can you zip me up?” Karolina asks. Nico slowly pulls up the zipper on the back of Karolina’s dress and decides to ignore the fact that it made her heartrate speed up.

She sees the silver Gibborim bracelet on Karolina’s wrist, and for reasons Nico can’t explain, she wants to take it off. She wants to see Karolina light up again, to see if it’s just as cool as last time. Nico reaches for the band but Karolina pulls away. “Not that one,” she says, laughing awkwardly.

“Oh, sorry, yeah,” Nico says, and Karolina says that it’s okay. Nico coughs. “I didn’t mean to be weird, like I was trying to make you glow or something.” She definitely was, but Karolina didn’t need to know that.

“Were you?” the taller girl asks. Damn.

“Maybe,” Nico admits, and Karolina smiles at her warmly. Nico continues, “What I saw you do the other night? It should never make you feel afraid. Or ashamed.”

“It’s just, everything my whole life has been for my mom and the church. Then I learned that what I thought was the ultimate good is somehow a part of the worst thing imaginable.”

Their conversation is strangely similar to the one Nico had with Alex a few days prior. And that had ended with her making out with Alex. She doesn’t allow herself to think about what might happen right now with Karolina. So she teases Karolina by calling her a rebel, and while she says it as a joke, she knows it’s partially true. The Karolina she thought she knew would never have agreed to help turn in their parents. Nico’s glad that she was wrong about her.

“No, I’m serious!” Karolina says. “I was the perfect church girl. I never did anything disobedient or different or what I wanted. But now that I know I’m, like, a total freak, maybe I’m free to be who I really am.” Nico nods, smiling. Even though she doesn’t think that Karolina’s a freak—quite the opposite, really—she’s glad Karolina’s ready to be honest with herself. “And to be… honest about who I want to be with,” Karolina continues. Karolina’s looking at Nico with a warm, gentle expression, and Nico thinks she’s never seen Karolina look so soft before. She allows herself to consider the possibility that Karolina’s talking about her when she describes who she wants to be with—honestly, it would make more sense than all the other shit that’s been going on. But before Nico can respond or Karolina can continue, they are interrupted by Gert and Molly entering the room.

_Shit_. Nico thinks to herself.

“I didn’t know you guys were coming,” Karolina said, shooting Nico a look.

“Nico invited us!” Molly said.

“Support your local girl gang, right?” Nico said, looking at Karolina. It sounded a lot more stupid out loud than it had looked when she had texted Gert about it earlier.

Karolina nods. “Right,” she says, and Nico feels her pull away. Maybe she’s just imagining it, but she feels colder without Karolina sitting beside her on the bed.

 

The gala is even crazier than she could have imagined. She and Alex manage to break into her mom’s office—she knows Alex lied about guessing her mom’s password, but she doesn’t have the time to dig into it when Chase finds her and tells her that their parents are having an affair. She gets a ride home with her dad and she doesn’t say a word to him the entire ride back.

 

When she does finally get Alex to admit to what was going on with Amy, she’s disgusted. Disgusted in him for keeping it a secret for so long, and disgusted in herself for becoming so close to him without realizing. She ends things with him; whatever it was that they had and refused to name. She can’t look at him without wanting to throw up. All of them seem to be mad at each other right now, after Chase went crazy and destroyed the laptop with the only evidence they have on it. She’s sitting in Amy’s room right now, laying on the bed and looking up at the paper snowflakes when she hears her phone beep. She sits up and grabs it, reading a text from Gert.

_Gert: Did you hear about Karolina and Chase??_

She sighs and unlocks her phone and texts back.

_Nico: no what happened_

After a minute or so, her phone beeps again.

_Gert: Molly told me that they kissed at the gala!! looks like u and alex arent the only couple in the group now ;)))))_

Nico sighs. She shouldn’t be surprised about Chase and Karolina—she’s seen how Chase looks at her. But that’s how everyone looks at Karolina. She wonders if Karolina kissed him back. Was he the one Karolina was talking about when she said she wanted to be honest about who she likes? It doesn’t really make sense—Chase was the genius jock. If anyone would be good enough for Karolina, it’s him. Nico doesn’t allow herself to feel jealous or upset or anything. _Good for Karolina_ , she thinks. She wonders why Gert felt the need to tell her about this. Gert usually isn’t one to mindlessly gossip.

_Nico: for the record alex & i arent together anymore. i ended that._

When Gert doesn’t respond, Nico rolls back onto her side and closes her eyes.

 

Nico isn’t looking forward to going to the dance. She hadn’t been planning on going at all, but then Eiffel calls Karolina a slut—and if Nico had had her staff on her she would have blasted Eiffel in seconds—and Gert buys them all tickets and now she has to go.

They all watch the VHS tape from Molly’s parents and the dance becomes a mission, and that makes things a little bit better, but still. The last formal event they all went to just went so well.

Alex comes over as part of their cover and says that she looks great, as if they were still dating. She only tolerates it until her parents are out of the room, and then she sets him straight.

“Too bad I don’t give a shit anymore,” she says, and she knows the words are harsh but she means them.

They take separate Lyfts to the dance.

 

She’s sitting in the back seat of Gert’s car, wedged in between Karolina and the door. Karolina looks stunning—as usual—in her pink shimmery dress. Also as per usual, Karolina seems to be radiating light, even in the dark parking lot where they’re waiting.

The atmosphere in the car is uncomfortable—Nico knows it’s partially her fault; she’s still snapping every time Alex tries to be friendly with her—and so she offers to go look for Chase and Gert.

“Want some company?” Alex asks.

She knows that he’s just going to keep apologizing if he comes with her, so she says, “Sure. Karolina, you wanna come?” The taller girl smiles and nods, and they slip out of the car and into the school.

They walk through the hallways, but can’t seem to find Chase and Gert. Nico suggests they give up, and just head back and wait for them outside.

“Wait,” Karolina says quietly.

Nico steps towards her. “Everything all right?” she asks. Karolina looks nervous, like her heart is beating out of her chest. She still looks beautiful; hair golden in the dim lights of the hallway. Karolina reaches forward and grabs Nico’s arms, holding her in place. Then she places a gentle hand on the side of Nico’s head and leans in and kisses her.

The warmth Nico has become accustomed to in regard to Karolina increases tenfold. A wave of heat surges over her body and even though Nico’s eyes are closed she can sense light radiating out from Karolina. It’s an incredible kiss, so much better than any kiss she shared with Alex. Nico realizes that she’s been waiting for this for a really long time.

Nico kisses her back.                                                                 


End file.
